Public Call to the Broadcasting Council: We call on the public authority to fulfill in good faith its obligation of ensuring the public interest in the audiovisual area

• Underline the primordial role of the Broadcasting Council (BC) in promoting and protecting the public interest for ensuring a pluralistic and objective information of the population — an interest that is higher than the political, economic, commercial, ideological or other interests.
• Recall that, according to the legal provisions, BC is the warrantor of the public interest in the audiovisual area;
• Note that the current legislation offers the BC public authority extensive legal mechanisms to exercise duties of supervision and control of audiovisual media service providers’ compliance with the law;
• Denote the unacceptability of tolerating the conduct of providers who blatantly disregard the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Code, Audiovisual Media Content Regulation and Regulation on the coverage of election campaign for early parliamentary elections of 11 July 2021;
• Underline the prejudicial nature of certain audiovisual media service providers’ actions and note that they severely violate the constitutional right to provide correct information to all citizens, as guaranteed by law;
• Regard as regrettable the practice of BC’s unjustified invocation of freedom of expression as a pretext for protecting certain providers from sanctions. As a human value, freedom of speech has limits to remain a value;
• Deeply regret the arbitrary BC’s denials to monitor the behavior of providers during the whole election period and the reluctance to review the complaints filed by individuals and civil society members that report serious violations;
• Express bewilderment regarding the unjustified and unexplainable authority’s tolerance towards the providers who covered the election campaign during the early parliamentary elections, evidently and certainly flouting the provisions of the law in force;

We call on the Broadcasting Council, by the virtue of its duties envisioned by law:

• To carry out its supervision and control tasks with maximum diligence and in good faith;
• To order monitoring of the conduct of audiovisual media services providers throughout the election period;
• To react promptly and effectively to detected cases of derogation from the audiovisual media legislation;
• Not to allow disregarding the efforts of its own Monitoring Department by neglecting serious deviations committed by some providers, reflected in Broadcasting Council’s own monitoring reports;
• To prioritize the public interest for ensuring correct and objective information of the population and to address the harmful administrative practice developed during the election period for the early parliamentary elections of 11 July 2021.

• Association for Participatory Democracy ‘Adept’
• CONTACT Center
• Promo-LEX Association
• National Youth Council of Moldova (CNTM)
• National Women's Studies and Information Center ‘Partnership for Development’
• Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM)
• Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE)
• Regional Development Agency ‘HABITAT’, Rezina         
• ‘DECA-Press’ News Agency
• ‘Pro-Tineret’ NGO, Borogani village, Leova          
• ‘Vatra Satului’ NGO, Cahul town    
• ‘Generatia Mea’ NGO, Chisinau municipality         
• ‘Tezaurul’ NGO, Cahul        
• ‘Soarta’ NGO, Soroca           
• ‘Tinerele Femei Cernoleuca’ NGO, Donduseni      
• ‘Ecologie si Sanatate Publica’ NGO, Soroca           
• ‘Народное Согласие’ NGO, Ceadir-Lunga
• ‘Keystone Human Services International Moldova Association’ NGO, Chisinau
• ‘ECOU–XXI’ Association, Taraclia 
• ‘VESTA’ Regional Association of Mothers with Many Children and Women Entrepreneurs from Gagauzia
• Alliance of Community Centers for Access to Information and Training in Moldova, (INFONET Alliance)
• Center for International Communication and Human Rights (CCIDO), Ialoveni  
• ‘Stabilitate’ Regional Development Center, Comrat           
• ‘Piligrim-Demo’ Youth Center from Gagauzia, Comrat     
• Center for Structural Policies and Reforms of the Republic of Moldova (CPR), Chisinau
• IDIS ‘Viitorul’, Chisinau      
• Institute for Democracy, Comrat      
• Institute for Human Rights (IDOM), Chisinau        
• The Laboratory of Initiatives for Development (LID Moldova), Chisinau 
• ‘RADIOVISION’ Association, Chisinau     
• ECOU Association for Combating Information Isolation, Cahul   
• Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Policies (CAPE)

• Experts for Security and Global Affairs Moldova Association
• Environment and Ecotourism Journalists’ Association
• National Youth Center of Moldova (CNTM)
• Regional Center CONTACT-Balti
• National Confederation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Moldova (NTRUC)
• Expert Grup
• IDIS Viitorul
• European Institute for Political Studies in Moldova (IESPM)
• Institute for Public Policy (IPP)
• Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE)
• IM Swedish Development Partner
• LDA-Moldova
• Transparency International-Moldova (TI-Moldova)
• Amnesty International Moldova

• ‘Media Guard’ Association
• Environment and Ecotourism Journalists’ Association
• Association of Electronic Press
• Association of Independent Press
• ‘Access-Info’ Center
• Center for Investigative Journalism
• Independent Journalism Center
• Press Freedom Committee 
• RISE Moldova